Monday, May 14, 2012

A Quickie, Then Back To Our Regularly Scheduled Story Teaser/Samples After This Poem About Politics...

No, I don't do politics.

But.

A lot of the poetry I like deals with the world at hand, the chaos that dominates. Which means, yeah, politics can play an intergral role in some of what I enjoy about poetry. Don't get me wrong, I love a wide variety of poetry. Dark verse or keen insight, observations of the flesh, the soul, or of what's right outside your front door; revolutionary ideals or even horror poetry, if it's done with an eye toward something original and not simply fancy bloodletting. The point is I enjoy poetry...and write some, too, have had some published, have published some here on the blog, have some slated for anthologies out later this year and...sooooo...since I am zonked and wanted to get a quickie post up here, thought, well, I'll post this poem I wrote about politics and get back to the teaser/samples blogs for my collection in a day or two. What's the name of the collection? Yes, by now if you've been paying attention, you know it's called, The Dark Is Light Enough For Me, though how many of you have bought it? Ahhhh, here's the purchasing links for Amazon & B&N & OmniLit & Amazon UK & there's more, that's a few... Anyway, taking a brief break, so now, a masterpiece of politically-aligned poetry entitled, "Turd."

What the...?

Yeah, "Turd." I have never liked that word, remember way back when, buying The Rolling Stones 2bl LP, Exiles on Main Street--haha, kind of a weirdly kismet title for a post on politics, perhaps--and there's a song on that thar 2bl album called, "Turd on the Run," and years later many people and polls consider this one of The Greatest Rock Album(s) Ever, yet I could never consider this as viable because there's a damned song on it called, "Turd on the Run," so now, here I am, that word never works for me, dislike that word immensely, yet now it's found its purpose! Now, in the politically-charged climate that's only going to get hotter and uglier over the next six months or so in the states, "Turd" makes all the sense in the world. Without further adieu...

***

Turd

By John Claude Smith

It might wear a thousand dollar suit,

Teeth whitened to a piercing glare,
Hair sprayed stiff as a plastic helmet,
Squinting eyes like rifle scopes set on the masses:

Bang!

Bang!
Bang!

Apparently you can
polish a turd,

Make the empty-headed puppet smile and dance,
But it will always be a turd.
Just take a deep sniff.

That’s the smell of your children’s futures turning to dust.

Fucking politicians!

***

No, not great art, but it was fun to write! hehe... It IS appropriate, though, this scribbled fist of words shaken toward Those In Power whose goals are at odds with common sense and humanity, in particular the rights of women and...oh, ahem. Yeah, you know which way this leans.

But remember...

I don't do politics.

Next time, back to the book, more teaser/samples to whet your appetite. For now, here's the back cover of The Rolling Stones' Exiles on Main Street because sometimes nonsense is all we got.